Facebook for customer service, case studies from Virgin and Park Bench, and why b2b social media will explode

Hi all,
Some great content this week - focusing on how to get better engagement on your Facebook page; some predictions on social media adoption over the next year; how to use Facebook for custo...

Hi all,

Some great content this week - focusing on how to get better engagement on your Facebook page; some predictions on social media adoption over the next year; how to use Facebook for customer service; and much more.

Read on!

In-depth look at the UK's third most engaging Facebook page - and what you can learn from them

Our friends at Fresh Networks have just put together a piece on their management of Vets Now's Facebook page, 'Park Bench'. There's more detail here, but a few highlights:

Learn which content works - and what doesn't: Make sure you're not posting stuff your audience doesn't care about. TRACK

Social Media ROI: some figures

Another day, another brilliant infographic - and more importantly, some stats you can benchmark your own progress against. This time it's from the Digital Buzz Blog, and you can find the full thing here. Sample:

74% of CMOs believe they'll tie social media efforts to hard ROI this year

76% of businesses are using social networking for business objectives

55% of companies plan on increasing their budget for social recruiting in 2011

How you can use Facebook for better customer service

More and more big companies are recognising the power of using social media for customer service. And the risks of not using it. So this piece from Econsultancy is timely - and gives you five tips on getting customer service delivery right through Facebook.

If you're looking to deliver customer service over social media, and want to hear from 22 leading US brands - like Citi, Best Buy, AT&T, 3M, KLM and more - then you should check out our Social Media for Customer Service Summit, taking place on the 27th and 28th October in New York. You can find out more here.

How Virgin Atlantic use social media marketing to boost brand awareness

Mashable are currently doing a great series on 'social brands', and their latest piece focuses on Virgin Atlantic, the international airline. The company take social very seriously - going so far as to name one of their planes with a hashtag. Mashable have an interview with their Director of Comms and Social Media manager on how they have incorporated social into their business. Some quotes:

"We've seen a ton of promise on the guest care and consumer communications side, but also on the revenue side"

"We see a lot more engagement on Twitter than some of the other platforms"

B2B Social Media use is set to explode - and here's the proof

The guys at Business2Community have shared some charts showing quite how significant social media is becoming in the b2b space. Far from not recognising the importance of social, 86% of b2b companies are now investing in some form of social media. Whilst in 2009, only $11m was spent by b2b companies on social media marketing, by 2014, that figure is expected to grow to a massive $54m in 2014. The full set of charts - and plenty more stats - are here.

If you are a b2b business looking at - or working with - social media, check out the B2B Social Media Summit, happening in Philadelphia on the 28-29 September. With IBM, Hitachi, Boeing, BASF, Caterpillar and many more speaking, it's well worth checking out.